


Acceptance

by plutosrose



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula's Mental Instability, F/M, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose
Summary: After the war, Mai struggles to get accepted by Zuko's new friends - notably, Katara.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 187





	Acceptance

It turns out that being in prison isn’t that hard for her.

It might help that her uncle is the Warden of the Boiling Rock Prison, but being locked up all day feels remarkably like the life that she had when she was living in Omashu with her parents. It doesn’t even feel that different from living near the Firelord’s Palace back in the capital, where she’s barely allowed to walk around by herself.

She may have been constantly by Azula’s side growing up, but she’s virtually anonymous in the prison. Ty Lee is still cheerful, despite their surroundings, and it only takes a couple of days before she’s excitedly talking her ear off at meal times about her new friends. She’s pretty sure that Ty Lee says “Kyoshi Warriors,” but that seems wrong to her. Since when would any of the Kyoshi Warriors even tolerate them, let alone be their friends?

She vaguely recalls a girl named Suki, who Azula had kept in a hole in one of the Fire Nation’s mountainous prisons, who had screamed and cried for Sokka, insisting that he would show up until she was virtually incoherent. It was one of the first times that Azula’s behavior had actually seemed wrong, and not just like something to participate in to pass the time.

The day the war was won was surprisingly uneventful. If anything, the guards and her uncle had been afraid of another escape or of another riot, as if the prisoners could truly sense what was going on in the outside world. They’d been locked inside their cells all day, and no food had come the entire day. It was only later that she would learn that many of the guards were recalled to the Fire Nation mainland to try and push back against the Avatar and his allies.

It’s another uneventful, boring week before she’s released, not in chains and not to Azula, but in her normal clothes and permanently, because Zuko has won the war and is going to be crowned Firelord.

It’s a day that she always imagined in her head, and imagined more often when they were together. She pictured herself sitting by his side during the ceremony, although they were always older in her imagination. And the war, well, she frankly hadn’t given that much thought to the war, because the truth of the matter was that it had never really mattered to her that much.

~

“I want to introduce you to my new friends,” Zuko said, pressing a kiss against her cheek when they’re alone together in the new Firelord’s personal quarters.

“They’re going to hate me.”

“They’re not going to hate you,” Zuko laughed, and the fact that Zuko seems so happy and light still catches her off guard.

Mai grabs his hands and puts them down by his side. “Yeah, they are.” She frankly doesn’t have the energy to explain why they would hate her, especially since it’s so obvious. While Zuko had picked up, left his family and life behind, and travelled across the world to teach the Avatar firebending, she hadn’t done any of that. Instead, she had stuck by Azula’s side, following her across the world as she tried to capture the Avatar.

Kill the Avatar, really. It was time for her to stop pretending that she didn’t know what Azula was really trying to do.

~

It’s not that she doesn’t love Zuko, because she does. She had spent weeks in prison because she’d chosen him over Azula. But she doesn’t entirely love the idea of being introduced to the Avatar and his friends.

But, as much as she wishes that he would drop the idea, he doesn’t. And it would be impossible for him to do so, seeing as now that they’ve saved the world, the Avatar and his friends are considered honored guests of the Fire Nation Royal Family, and they’re staying in the palace for the time being.

While Mai reasons that they can’t live there forever, none of them seem to be in much of a hurry to leave. Aang has negotiated the use of a large barn on the palace grounds for his flying bison. Zuko gives Toph free reign to explore the catacombs beneath the palace, and frequently takes Sokka and Katara to concerts and plays that are privately performed for the new Firelord.

Having a friend who is the ruler of an entire country does have its perks.

~

“Everyone,” Zuko clears his throat over dinner. She was hanging back for the moment, waiting for them to all jump up and attack.

Honestly, she wouldn’t have blamed them if they did.

“I want to introduce you all to Mai.”

Sokka, who is wrestling with the large komodo rhino sausage on his plate, looks up. “The gloomy girl?”

Mai, from her position, wrinkles her nose at this description of herself, as accurate as it is. Zuko smiles.

Toph squints at Zuko. “The girl who was following Azula around the world trying to attack us?”

Mai winces, and Zuko cringes too.

Katara is silent.

“She saved us at the Boiling Rock Prison,” Sokka offers, and that seems to be enough to win Aang over. Toph seems skeptical, but merely shrugs and goes back to shoveling fruit tarts onto her plate.

“I’d like to properly meet her if that’s what you want, Zuko,” Aang says, smiling encouragingly.

Katara folds her arms and mumbles that she’s not hungry. By the time Zuko signals to Mai that she can come and join them for dinner, her seat is noticeably empty.

~

Mai is used to people liking Ty Lee more than her, but she wasn’t expecting people who used to be her enemies to be won over so quickly.

Ty Lee, when she is not training with the Kyoshi Warriors, fits in perfectly. Mai can’t help but feel a little bit jealous, especially as she sits on the palace steps and watches Ty Lee teach Aang how to walk on his hands. (“You can probably already do this.” “Sure, but I want to see the way you do it!”)

One day, on the way back to her family’s house, she sees Ty Lee giving Sokka a lesson in Chi Blocking. (“You have to stand like this. Adjust your stance. It’s not like punching someone, you have to be faster. Jab Jab Jab. Oh my gosh you’re such a fast learner, Sokka! Not that I expected anything different.”) On another day, Toph joins them for a lesson.

On another day, she spots Ty Lee and Katara giggling together. She isn’t sure what’s so funny, but the moment she stops in her tracks, Katara makes a face. “I need to go help Aang with waterbending practice, don’t want him to get rusty,” she says.

And Mai, for the first time in a long time, is close to losing her temper at such a pathetic excuse for avoiding her.

~

“Come back to Kyoshi Island with me,” Ty Lee offers when she’s hugging her goodbye. Mai scoffs at the idea - she might feel out of place in her own home, especially after spending several weeks in prison, but it would be nothing compared to living on an island off the coast of the Earth Kingdom, a place that she strongly associates with Azula and the war.

“Please,” Ty Lee whines, clutching her hands in hers. “It would be so much fun, and I know the girls would love you.”

“People don’t like me as much as they like you,” Mai grumbled, and although Azula had always said a version of this to Ty Lee, Ty Lee never got offended when she said it.

Ty Lee frowned and shook her head. “They just need to give you a chance.”

~

It’s pretty clear that Katara does not want to give her a chance.

One day after breakfast, she corners her on the way back to her quarters. “I know you don’t like me.”

Katara pushes her aside and narrows her eyes at her. “Yeah, what gave you that idea? What could have possibly happened for me to not like you? Was it when you tried to stab me and my brother with knives in Ba Sing Se? Was it when you chased around the Earth Kingdom countryside hoping we’d die of exhaustion so you could imprison us?”

“Ty Lee did those things too,” Mai huffed, blowing a strand of her dark hair off her face. “I’m not Azula.”

“I’m not talking about Azula,” Katara hissed. Azula was currently in one of those mountainous Fire Nation prisons that had been full of war criminals only a few weeks earlier. Katara had gone to see her once with Zuko, mostly because the last thing she wanted was for him to have contact with his sister alone.

Mostly, she had babbled to herself, talking about their mother. She’d said something about Water Tribe ghosts and asked if she could have hotcakes for her birthday. Zuko had barely held it together through the visit, and Katara wasn’t certain if it had helped or hurt that Azula seemed to barely recognize them.

“Okay,” Mai frowned. “Then what are you talking about?”

“Zuko risked everything to join us, and frankly, I don’t really know where you stand,” Katara folded her arms across her chest and stared her down in a way that made her seem much taller and physically imposing than she was. “If people loyal to Ozai appeared tomorrow, would you fight to defend Zuko? Or would you go back to trying to capture Aang?”

“I have no interest in capturing Aang,” Mai shot back, a little more aggressive than she’d intended.

“Yeah, you could have fooled me.”

“What am I supposed to do, then? Why do you trust Ty Lee and not me?”

“Ty Lee became a Kyoshi Warrior.”

“That’s not a reason,” she starts, before Katara cuts her off.

“I trust Suki’s judgment.”

“And you don’t trust Zuko’s?”

Katara took a step forward. “I trust Zuko with my life, but I don’t know if I should trust you with his heart.”

Mai wrinkled her nose. “Do you like him?”

Katara narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “No. You are connected with his old life. You will never be able to escape that, but you need to be able to embrace the New Zuko. He changed after he left to help us. And I’m not sure you understand that.”

As much as she wanted to tell Katara that she was wrong, that she did understand, she knew she didn’t.

Zuko had lived as a fugitive from the Fire Nation, willing to put his life on the line to end the war.

And truthfully, her life was never in danger. Even in prison, she was the Warden’s niece, and she’s confident that her parents would have lost their minds if anything happened to her on the Boiling Rock.

“How do I understand?”

Katara does not immediately respond, but her expression softens. “Listen to him. Listen to us,” she says. “Accept that things are different.”

Those do not seem like concrete goals, because truthfully, Mai has done a lot of listening in her life. She furrowed her brow as she thought this over.

Apparently, this was a good sign, because Katara brightens further. “Just think about it. But I’m serious about Zuko. If you break his heart, I will personally see to it that you are banished.”

Katara doesn’t really have that kind of authority, but the threat makes Mai smile. It’s the first time any of Zuko’s new friends see her smile.

“Trust me, you don’t have to worry about that.”


End file.
